Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1915 — DEDICATING OF TEMPLE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DEDICATING OF TEMPLE

! 1 Kings 8:22-30—Juig 25. What the Temple Typified—Double Antitypes—Their Dedication—King Solomon’s Prayer God’s Personality. “The Glory of the Lord Filled the Temple”—lts Antitype. "Mg House shall be called a House of Prager for all people.”—lsaiah 5G.-7. fULL of appreciation of God’s promise that King David's successor should build the Temple for which David had long made preparation, King Solomon speedily gave attention to the matter. In the fourth year of his reign the Temple was begun, and seven and a half years later was ready for dedication. Strange to say, it was dedicated about a month before completion. Doubtless this contained some important typical lesson. We are interested in Solomorfs Temple more than in any other building because it was also a type. (1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 6:16.) In the picture which the Apostle suggests, the Church corresponds to the Tabernacle rather than to the Temple. God was with the Israelites from the time they entered into a covenant with Him, and He indicated His Presence by the Sheklnah Light in the Most Holy of the Tabernacle. So from the time of our begetting of the Holy Spirit, our bodies are tabernacles, temporary dwelling-places of God's Spirit, represented in us by the begetting influence which we receive as the start of our existence as New Creatures in Christ That Holy Illumination, spread abroad In us. fills us more and more with the light of the knowledge of God’s glory. By and by the Lord’s saintlj’ ones will be changed from flesh to spirit and will be more perfectly represented by Solomon’s Temple.

Preparation of the Living Stones.

A still more beautiful thought is brought to our attention by St. Peter. He tells us that the various members of the Church are living stones, in process of chiseling and polishing, preparatory to their uniting in one glorious Temple of God

beyond the Veil. (1 Peter 2:5, 9.) The bringing t ogether of these living stones will be by the Resurrection P p w e r, beautifully illustrated in the dedication of Solomon’s Temple. We read that its stones were

prepared at the quarry, and so perfectly shaped and

marked for their places that they Came together Without sound of hammer. So the Church is God's .workmanship. (Eph. 2:10). His work will be so perfectly accomplished that there will be no need of alteration beyond the Veil. This viewpoint is especially interesting and profitable to the Lord’s people. Such of them as can realize their High Calling to membership in the Temple can fully appreciate thereafter the necessity for trials and difficulties, which shape and lit them for Heavenly glory, honor, immortality. These are the “all things" working together for good to them that love God—preparing them for the services of the future. The thought of the Church as the Temple under construction suggests a future work. Why construct a Temple and not use it? Serious injury came to ns through errors of the past. With the view that the Church alone is to be saved, and that at Christ’s Second Coming the world will be burned up. the construction of the Church as the Temple would seem to be a waste, since there would be nobody to be blessed bv it.

However, as our eyes of understand ing open more and more, we see that, instead of terminating at Christ's Second Coming, the Divine Plan will merely begin there, so far as the world is concerned. The Church will be the great Temple through which all mankind will return to harmony with God. Eventually this glorified Temple will be the House of Prayer for all people —through the glorified Church God’s Presence will be manifested and His mercy available to all.

Dedicating the Temple. When the Temple was ready for dedication, King Solomon presented it

to God with the prayer which constitutes the basis of today’s Study—a prayer beautiful In its simplicity, and indicative of his perception of the great truth that God is a personal God, whose dwelling-place is not everywhere, but in Heaven. It shows that the

king fully understood that the presence of the Temple indicated that there were sinners who needed atonement, mercy and forgiveness; and that prayer would be appropriate. During the Millennium all mankind will have opportunity of approaching God through His Temple, of which Jesus is the Chief Corner-Stone and the Church the living stones. God will hear the prayers thus properly presented and will forgive the sins of the people. As a result Restitution will progress to completion.

Solomon’s great Antitype, the Lord Jesus Christ, will dedicate His Church, formally presenting to Jehovah the Temple which is His Body, reared up on the Third Thousand-Year Day from His death—the dawning of the Great Sabbath. Then Divine glory will fill the Temple. Possibly, as in the type, this may be while yet the construction work is not quite finished.

Solomon’s Sacrifice Accepted.

King Solomon's Sacrifice.